NEWS: Rapidshare's End?

Rapidshare lost to GEMA in a court. This article, which quoted RS' lawyer saying that both .de and .com were involved. RS is still operating and they intend to file an appeal. The judge ordered Rapidshare to search every file for copyrighted material or if that's not possible, to shut down. This could effect the bulk of the files posted on this site (and elsewhere). Would other file sharing sites be unaffected if GEMA is successful?

Ironically, EFF just posted their five year report on media industry attempts to reduce file sharing. The RIAA admits the lawsuits were intended to be "educational".  It's taught me not to buy RIAA.

OT: Here's a good article on the Copyright Royalty Board and revenue-sharing. Of course CRB wants to raise rates for downloads and streaming to pay songwriters and musicians more (you know, the people that actually OWN the music). The article offers some figures.  Apple threatens to close ITunes if rates are raised, saying they already pay "the industry" (the people that don't own the music they sue for) $0.70 per $1.00. Out of that, "the industry" pays $0.09 to the people that write and perform music. What's wrong with that picture? 

UPDATE:

RapidShare will not control Uploads
October 26, 2008

160 million files have already been uploaded to RapidShare. A number that proves, that the world depends on moving important data from A to B. A number that also proves, that RapidShare with its fast and easy services also addresses users that are no computer nerds.

RapidShare is the first technology worldwide that made sending big files so easy, so fast and so secure. The files can be stored as long as needed and can be recalled from anywhere in the world, they are strictly confidential and can only be accessed by the user that originally loaded them up, or alternatively can be distributed among thousands of people quickly and easily. With a couple of billion page impressions per day we know, that we as a leader will have to pave the way for this new technology. We are aware of the fact that we therefore have big responsibility. If, for example, it had been regulated by law to control all copies before the first photo copier was invented, it is very likely that these machines would have never hit the market. That's why we are doing everything to enable this new technology - which is still very young, but already inspires millions of people every day - to be part of our future and make life more comfortable.

The security of personal data is very important to us, especially in these times. That's the reason why we will not spy out the files that our clients faithfully upload onto RapidShare, not now nor in future. We are against upload control and guarantee you that your files are safe with us and will not be opened by anyone else than yourself, unless you distribute the download link. RapidShare, of course, is against the distribution of illegal files and as soon as we are informed about illegal distribution, we delete these files and put them on a filter. But the general control of uploads is out of the question for us, because we think that especially in these times data privacy comes first.